Friday, June 24, 2011

So I have been pulled away from my painting by an unexpected field project and so have not been able to finish that shield icon thats been driving me batty....but I was able to put the finishing touches on a figure that I have been waiting to paint for many years. This is another Marauder Dwarf that I will be using as the hero for my Hammerers Unit. I've had this figure since the early 1990's and never had the chance to get him painted...it feels good to finally do him justice.

I also managed to get him finished just in time for the monthly painting contest over at Bugman's Brewery.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Well its been a long slog for these next two figures...the summer has gotten quite busy and finding painting time is becoming more and more difficult (I know...excuses excuses...:)). But I finally managed to knock out two more dwarfs from WK's second set of core infantry. One of these is assembled as a hand gunner and is painted in my regular Red and Blue color scheme though I have worked in some white elements to break up things up a little. The head that I chose for this figure is one of the more interesting options that John Pickford came up with IMO. The face has great character and I love the hat and feather. Here he is:

The second dwarf I chose to arm with a sword and picked another very characterful head. This is another very interesting head sculpt with an "amish" style beard and big round cheeks. This face took some time to grow on me but as I painted it I began to appreciate it more and more. This figure is painted in a Blue, White, and Green color scheme that I will using for a small unit of swordmen. I may opt to add a shield to this figure in the future so that it more clearly matches the front rank swordman that includes a shield....anyway...here he is:

Coming Next...
...I will be sharing the two finished front rankers from WK's 3rd release. The pike dwarf is finished and the swordman just needs to have his shield finished. Ugh...I've been working on a free hand design for his shield icon and its been driving me crazy...and just tonight I scrapped off the paint to try one more time....wish me luck.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

...So despite my telling you that my next post would include some more painted versions of WK's dwarfs...I got slightly side tracked. Through some mishandling of a box of figures and paints I was separated from the four WK dwarfs that I currently have in process for several days...so I had to find something else to work on. Also the deadline for the monthly painting contest that I participate in over on Chaos Dwarfs Online (Brush Slave #5) was rapidly approaching and I had to get an entry done. Not wanting to stray too far from my current pikeman project I decided to paint up another of the classic Marauder sculpts. I chose to paint the Sergent figure from Marauder Pike Regiment...probably the best of the Rank and File figures from this group. Here is my version:

Thursday, June 9, 2011

The next set of Dwarfs that WK will be releasing will include four front rank poses. Only 2 of these designs have been pre-cast at this time but I was quite excited when WK included them in the package he sent me because they are some of my favorite poses that he has commissioned to date. Like the last set these have a variety of plug in weapons that allow for a lot of variability...however unlike the previous models they don't have head options. That said the sculpts are fantastic and the poses are quite dynamic and interesting...these guys look like they are ready for action. Here are close ups of the two poses.

And here are the sculpts with most of the weapon options...somehow I managed to forget to include the handgun option in the Photo....DOH! And now our camera seems to be on the fritz...so you'll have to trust me (or look at WKs blog) that there is a hand gun option as well.

In case it is unclear...the one on the left is a sword and shield combo. For my two figures I opted to go with the Pike for one and the Sword and Shield for the other. Both Plug-ins fit very well and glued up easily with no gap filling needed.

I should also mention that the weapons that John P. and WK came up for these guys have the added advantage of fitting the already existing Marauder plug-in dwarfs. This is a wonderful bonus because almost everyone who has been collecting Marauder Dwarfs for awhile have a few of those figure with no weapons....a front rank of dwarfs with stumps for weapons fails to intimidate many enemies...:)

Coming Next....
I'm about 1/2 way through painting these two guys as well as the dwarf with the sword and the one with the hand gun from the previous release. I hope to have pics up by the weekend...if I can get my camera to co-operate.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Yes...I can actually get some painting done...when I can find some free time! This weekend I found the time...I managed to get two of WK's pike dwarfs finished up as well as one of the Marauder sculpts for comparison. As is often the case I wasn't so sure about these paint jobs until I had them all based up and really "done" now I am quite happy with them and can't wait to get a few more knocked out. Without further ado...here they are...first solo and then with the Marauder pike as well.

As you can see they really are a perfect match...size and style-wise...with the Marauders...in fact I have all kinds of new ideas about my old units....and new units!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

So I spent a lot of time fiddling with all the the different head and body combos...so many options! One of things that I was always slightly disappointed about with the selection of sculpts for the Marauder Pikemen was the fact that only one of the them wore any armor or helmet. So I was excited to see that several of the heads from WK's dwarfs were equipped with sallet helmets. Therefore I decided to build the two bodies that were destined to have pike arms with helmets...one open and one closed. The other two bodies I assembled with examples of the other weapons...one with a musket and one with a sword. With these I choose heads that I thought would interesting and that would be enjoyable to paint.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Hi! My name is Chris...though most of you will know me better as Blue in VT...and this is my blog...thanks for stopping by.

I thought I had better start a blog in order to consolidate all of the various miniature project reports that I have spammed all over the web during the last year in one location...and to let you know about what I'm working on now.

As most of you will know I'm a collector and painter of miniatures...and a large percentage of the ones I favor were produced by Marauder miniatures in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Marauder Miniatures was an off-shoot of the Citadel Miniature Company that produced quality metal figures for use in the table top war game Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WFB). The company operated "independently" of Citadel from 1988 to 1993 before being re-absorbed by the larger firm.

In my opinion the miniatures produced by Marauder were some of the best figures produced for WFB. They were the figures that captured my imagination at an impressionable age (I was 15 in 1988) and while I had assembled quite a collection then, it has been in the last year that I have returned to the hobby and begun collecting and painting them...with reckless abandon. If your not familiar with Marauder Miniatures there are a number of good reference sites on the WWW...the best of which is the "Stuff of Legends" web site...here is a link to their Marauder Catalog page: http://www.solegends.com/marauder/index.htm

At this point my largest collection is my Dwarf Army...which was my first, and is still, my favorite. This group consists of an nearly complete selection of Marauder Dwarfs as well as quite a few of the Citadel dwarfs produced during the same time period. But I couldn't be stopped there...I have also assembled a complete set of the Marauder Chaos Dwarfs (MM90s) and have begun to collect their Orcs, Goblins, Ogre, and Empire (human) figures as well. I will be posting about each of these lines as I manage to find time to paint them up.

But....as previously mentioned it was the Marauder Dwarfs that were (and are) my first love. Many of the figures from this line were armed and dressed in the style of the Landsknecht, the mercenary soldiers that dominated many European battlefields during the Late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Landsknecht were famous for their wildly flamboyant style of dress...and to have that style applied to a dwarf army seems improbable...but to my eye...it worked very well, as evidenced by these Marauder catalog shots.

Enter the Knight...

Sadly this range of figures, while wonderfully characterful, is also quite small. This has made collecting them an achievable goal...but has always left me wanting more options for my units. Enter another Marauder dwarf collector...who goes by the handle: White Knight. White Knight has recently commissioned well known miniature sculptor John Pickford to create a new range of dwarfs dressed in the Landsknecht style that would work well with those created by Marauder. For a complete breakdown of WK's project please see his blog which can be found here: White Knights Miniature Imperium

WK has recently made the first 8 figures from this new line available for purchase (again see his blog for details)...but there are a lot more in the works. Knowing that I share his addiction to dwarfs of this style WK has been kind enough to send me some pre-production castings of the next set of Core Infantry dwarfs that he will be offering. Over the next couple of posts to this blog I will share with you these new figures...my impressions of them...the many options for heads and weapons (yes they are modular!)...and as time permits...some of my painting efforts.

As a teaser for the next post I will leave you with a couple of pictures of the first of these pre-production sets...

Here are the four body options (click for larger images):

Here are the eight (!) head options from this set:

And here are the 8 weapon options from this set:

Coming Next Post...
...I'll post pictures of the head and weapon choices that I made and post a couple of pictures comparing these figures with the Marauder sculpts...stay tuned!